In a Fibre Channel (FC) network, FC switches are deployed to direct traffic between, for example, host server devices and storage array devices. Each FC switch can serve devices in multiple runtime domains that are identified by a domain identifier (ID). The domain ID is an 8-bit identifier with a range of 1-239. As such, each switch has one or more domain IDs associated therewith that reflect the runtime domains serviced by the switch.
Network operators are often required to increase the size and functionality of an existing FC network. This is commonly done through the addition of a single stand-alone FC switch to the existing network.